Rapids forward Conor Casey battles for the ball against D.C. United in an MLS game last Saturday. Colorado will play in the CONCACAF Champions League in August.

A good news-bad news situation for the Rapids after they learned their draw for the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League.

The good news: Colorado conveniently missed the monsters of Mexico. A good turn, as Mexican teams have dominated the tournament in recent years (winning the past six) and overall (winning 27 of 48 trophies since 1962).

The bad news: The Rapids were placed in Group B with Real España, last year’s Honduran Liga Nacional apertura champion.

Colorado and España are the two auto-qualifiers into the group stage. They will be joined by the winners of preliminary round matches between Mexico’s Santos Laguna vs. Honduras’ Olimpia, and El Salvador’s Isidro Metapan vs. a to-be-determined Caribbean Football Union team.

A carpenter from Jackson Hole is well on his way to obliterating the record for the 2,490-mile Great Divide Race from Canada to Mexico. Jay Petervary, riding a custom-made carbon-fiber Orbea bike, appears on pace to break the 16-day record set by Grand Junction’s Mike Curiak in 2004. On Monday afternoon, the 10th day of the self-supported race on mostly unpaved roads, Petervary pulled into Del Norte. He had traveled 1,680 miles in 244 hours and 20 minutes and had 800 more miles to go. On Saturday, Denver Post photographer Mateo Leyba was pedaling a quick 40-miler near Boreas Pass when he passed Petervary. Leyba said Petervary was pounding the pedals and amped, saying it was birthday and he’d never felt better.